Some things you should only do once…

One of the hats I wear is Writing Coach. I coach MBA students and I love the work. One recent student was a professional musician. She wrote of her love for the arts, and as we read her essay aloud parts of it flowed like music…but then other sections just kind of trailed off…

This student was overly fond of the ellipsis. She had one in the title and three in the body of her essay. I told her to choose one. She argued. I stood my ground: One ellipsis only. It’s an unofficial rule of writing.

The ellipsis is not an everyday punctuation mark. When we see it, we notice it. And if we see another one a paragraph or two later, we are pulled out of the writing to make a mental note of it. The third one becomes irritating and if there are any others…well, let’s just say the writer who overuses the ellipsis could be giving her readers a reason to put the writing aside…

It’s not just ellipses. Exclamation points should be used with care, as well! Too many, and you risk looking like you’ve had a few javas too many! And don’t use two together or you’ll look like a teenage girl!!

I pointed out to this student that in two instances, she could just as easily—and in fact, more correctly—use a dash. (No, I didn’t use the term em dash. I’ve never met anyone who’s ever actually used an en dash, so why differentiate?) Okay—I admit it—the dash can be overused, as well. And I suppose—though no editor has called me on this lately—that I overuse it in my own writing now and then. But for me, the dash is almost an everyday punctuation mark. I say, dash away. But then go over your writing and ask yourself about every single dash: could a comma or semi-colon or period be used here instead? And if so, use one of the latter.
Save that lovely dash for something more important.

But the ellipsis: one per essay, article or short story. In a book-length work, maybe two.

I’m not and never have been an editor (note my two incomplete sentences above) but here’s what I tell students about punctuation marks:

• Period. The everyday workhorse;
• Comma, the pause that refreshes, and be careful, not to use it when you
don’t, need a pause;
• Parentheses (when you want the written equivalent of an aside);
• Dash—for when you want to set something off with panache (couldn’t
help myself);
• Semicolon; I’ve seen writers and editors get downright heated discussing
its use and some want to ban it outright but I say, sometimes the semi-colon
is the best mark for the job and people should just chill;
• Colon: the semi-colon’s big brother and use it only when you want to
give something emphasis or to start a list;
• Exclamation point! You know you shouldn’t always be using this!
• …Ellipses…

And while we’re on the subject, be careful of using unusual, attention-getting words more than once in any piece of writing. But that’s for another post.

Tagged as: punctuation, writing coaching